This invention relates generally to a housing for a transformer to change regular household current into the appropriate current for a door bell ringer.
Electrical power is ordinarily generated in an electrical power plant. From the electrical power plant it has to be distributed into the power grid and ultimately directed to a commercial or residential user. Ordinarily, the power is distributed over lines at high voltages and current flow rates or amperages. As it approaches an area where it will be distributed to the ultimate user, the voltages and amperages must be stepped down or transformed into more appropriate voltages and amperages. This requires transformers. Consequently, transformer stations are fairly common in a given power distribution area. The power may then be distributed form this transformer station through overhead or underground lines into an area where it will then be distributed to individual users. But, again, the voltages and current flow rates frequently must be changed, which requires transformers on poles or mounted on concrete pads in neighborhoods. From these transformers, individual power lines at the usual voltage of 120 volts are directed to individual users or homes. Various types of housings for transformers to improve efficiency, to reduce the risk of fire or accidental shock, and provide better protection for the transformers have been proposed. For example, Giamnaco, U.S. Pat. No. 5,177,325, proposes an improved housing for an electrical transformer to reduce water leakage inside the transformer housing. Wilk, U.S. Pat. No. 3,365,535, shows a locking enclosure for a pad-mounted transformer. Uptegraff, U.S. Pat. No. 3,360,572, discloses an improved transformer housing that uses air for cooling and can be adopted for either indoor or outdoor installation.
However, the need for transformers does not end in a neighborhood power distribution center but also extends inside a building itself. For example, certain types of lighting, especially 12 or 24-volt halogen lighting, requires transformers to reduce the 120-volt standard household current to the appropriate current for such lighting requirements. For example, Tremaine et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,948, discloses a power supply distribution center for a plurality of low-voltage lamps. This housing has three compartments with a removable power tray having a toroidal transformer, a low-voltage compartment which has a distribution center using a fuse panel for a plurality of fuses. Most hardware or contractor""s supply stores have a variety of boxes, usually plastic, that can be used as junction boxes or switch boxes.
One type of specific household electrical application that requires the use of a transformer is a door bell ringer. The door bell ringer requires a transformer to step down household voltage to the appropriate voltage for the ringer mechanism. In conventional building applications, the ringer transformer is mounted outside of the walls, preferably out of sight in the closet or other concealed space, and connected by appropriate wiring to the door bell ringer. A push button system that completes the connection is mounted near an entrance or entrances of the home. When the button is pushed, the connection is completed closing the electrical circuit so that the door bell ringer will activate and sound a chime. Ideally, the push button, the door chimes, the transformer, and other electrical switches will all be in proximity to each other. In practice, it rarely works this way. Because the transformer is usually mounted outside the walls on a nail-on box, it must be mounted in an out-of-the-way place, otherwise, the visible portion of the box, transformer and electrical wires are an eye sore. By the same token, the chimes must be mounted in a place where they are likely to be heard by an occupant of the house when the doorbell ringer button is pushed. If mounted inside a closet in an out-of-the-way bedroom, the sounds created by the chimes might not be heard. This creates the need for running wiring from the push button, which is necessarily mounted near a door to a transformer, which is necessarily mounted in an out-of-the-way closet, or a concealed space to the chimes, which are necessarily mounted in a central area where they can be heard throughout the house. The wiring is run inside the walls and beneath paneling or sheet rock. The transformer and chimes are mounted outside of the walls. If there is a substantial delay between the time the wiring is originally run and the time the chimes and transformer are mounted, it can be difficult for the electrician to find the previously run wires that may have been covered by sheetrock. All this makes the electrical mounting and installation of a doorbell system more complicated than is necessary.
Consequently, it would be an advance in the art to provide a housing specifically designed for doorbell transformers and accompanying electrical equipment. The housing is sized so that it can be mounted between the studs, hence, placed beneath paneling, wall board, and the like so that it will be out of sight. Because the box is mounted between the studs and is ordinarily at least partially covered by wall board, paneling, and the like, the transformer can be mounted directly beneath the desired point of placement for the chimes themselves.
The current invention is an enclosure open on two of the six sides. The enclosure is divided by a partition, which separates the interior of the enclosure into two separate spaces. On a side of the enclosure, there is at least one bore or opening placed to allow the standard 120-volt household wiring, which connects to a junction within the housing. From this junction wires are run through an opening in the partition to a transformer placed within a partition portion of the enclosure. Again, there is a bore in the wall of the enclosure to allow low-voltage wires to be run from the transformer respectively to the push-button switch and to the chimes. The chimes can be mounted directly over the transformer, which is located between the studs and underneath wall board, sheet rock, paneling, or the like.